Last week, communities across the country began conducting “counts” of their homeless populations, an effort most will wrap up this week. The results will be published later this year in a report assessing the state of homelessness in America—including whether it is going up or down. The problem is—the “counts” won’t tell us that. A lot of energy goes into the counts, which are federally mandated, and volunteers come out in force to help. This is a good thing: it shows how much people care about their fellow Americans who are without one of the most basic necessities of life: a [...]